'We are using the funds to bring together people from all over the world who are working on SRI to participate in two events which will help us to disseminate knowledge on SRI and its favorable climate impacts.

The first event will enable SRI scientists to present their work and discuss their findings with SRI researchers and with others from many countries interested in climate change and food security.

The second event, co-sponsored with the SRI-Mas Network in Malaysia, will bring together colleagues from various national and regional SRI Networks around the world to discuss inter- and intra-regional SRI cooperation and opportunities for multi-country studies that would include GHG research.

The Keeling Curve prize is helping SRI-Rice to convene this international group of scientists, communicators and field staff at an opportune time. The money is being used for airfare, accommodations, and event preparations (including literature for distribution). The prize money, by being used very sparingly and strategically, will enable researchers including GHG scientists and SRI network heads from the following countries to attend both events: India (3), Iraq (1), Philippines (2), Mali (1), Nepal (1), USA (1), and Vietnam (1). By being able to bring together this core of researchers and network heads with a number of other people who are interested in SRI and self-sponsored to attend these events.

The timing for the Keeling Prize could not have been better as we did not have the funding to pull together these two events as they both needed to happen in October in order to take advantage of International Rice Congress, which is a highly-regarded global conference that is convened only every four years.'

Lucy Hill Fisher, The System of Rice Intensification, Cornell University, September 2018